Elderly Pedestrian Killed in Lakeview Crash

A van driver fatally struck an 80-year-old man at the intersection of Ashland and Wellington Thursday morning, according to authorities. Jamie Ramirez was crossing eastbound at 8:45 a.m. when he was hit by the 50-year-old driver of a northbound 2006 Kia van, said Officer Janel Sedevic from Police News Affairs. The senior ran out into the street, outside of the crosswalk and against the light, Sedevic said.

The victim, whose residence was listed as being on the 800 block of West Lill in a DNAinfo story but was reported as being on the 8000 block of South Western by CBS, was transported to Illinois Masonic Medical Center in critical condition. He was pronounced dead at 8:38 p.m. Friday, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office.

The motorist, whose name has not been released, was the only person in the car and was not injured, police said. He told officers that he was unable to stop in time in order to avoid striking Ramirez. Witnesses backed up the driver’s claim, according to the Tribune. The driver was not cited. Area North detectives are investigating the crash.

Horrible story. It’s hard to have an opinion without seeing it, though — if a pedestrian steps in front of a car when it’s a few yards away, there’s not much the driver can do, even around 25-30 mph. But at the same time, drivers are responsible for not hitting pedestrians who step into their paths, if they have time to react, regardless of whether it’s a crosswalk or not. Countless pedestrians have jaywalked in front of my car over the years in Chicago, but thankfully I have always had enough time to break. The penalty for jaywalking shouldn’t be death.

It sounds like the witnesses felt the driver had no time to react in this case, though — I feel awful for his family. They will probably always wonder what caused him to run out into the street.

duppie

“The senior ran out into the street”. Really? Nice way of blaming the 80 year old man.

We discussed the wording of this. Witnesses confirmed the driver’s story that this was the case, according to the Tribune. It’s possible an 80-year-old man would run into the street against the light, and there are various explanations for why this might happen. It’s also possible that the motorist was not obeying the speed limit and that the fatality might have been avoided.

I deleted your comment because it seemed to be ridiculing the victim. Actually, speed cameras might have helped prevent the fatality in this case. We don’t know whether the driver was obeying the speed limit. It’s possible speed was a contributing factor as to why he was not able to stop in time and why the crash was fatal. Also, traffic camera footage might have helped the police get a better sense of what really took place.

Adam Herstein

Hopefully the Ashland BRT project will help calm auto traffic and prevent these kind of tragedies.

bedhead1

This is like saying the penalty for trying to cross a frozen river during spring shouldn’t be drowning. Well of course it *shouldn’t* be, but that possibility exists anyway given the circumstances. As Clint said in Unforgiven, deserve aint got nothing to do with it.

what_eva

It is difficult to be speeding northbound at that intersection at that time of day (trailing end of rush hour). Traffic is often backed up from Belmont all the way down to Wellington.

While no one should cross the street recklessly, people do. Some seniors have dementia. Children tend to be impulsive. People make mistakes. But when you’re driving a 3,000-pound vehicle, it’s your responsibility to do everything in your power to avoid killing other human beings.

It’s entirely possible that there truly was nothing the driver could have done to prevent this death. But cases like this are a good argument for proper speed enforcement. If all drivers respected the 30 mph speed on city streets, many more pedestrian crashes and fatalities could be avoided, even in a situation like this where someone apparently acted unpredictably.

Adine seto

I agree with Adam n also thinks that Government should increase these type of project so that can avoid the number of accident on road.http://rotondolaw.com/

Fibinaccignocchi

Thankfully there are lots of people who look at these types of situations and rather than taking a fatalistic attitude ask “How can this be prevented” and then they create solutions, like traffic calming measures, or safer street configurations, much like bridges over frozen rivers.

Thanks to those people we don’t have to live in the Old West any more and instead get to enjoy things like traffic control, and running water, and antibiotics and we don’t die from dysentery or spoiled food.

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

View Larger Map> The crash site from the driver’s perspective. A 19-year-old man has died from injuries he suffered in a crash last Friday night. Marvell White, of the 9000 block of South Racine in Gresham, was crossing five lanes of traffic in the 8700 block of South Ashland at around 8:20 p.m., according to […]

A 45-year-old male pedestrian is dead after a motorist lost control of his vehicle and drove onto the sidewalk. Andre Silas Jr., 19, was driving northbound on Halsted Street on Wednesday morning at about 11 a.m., according to Officer Janel Sedevic from Police News Affairs. At 118th Street, Silas ran into a light pole on […]

View Larger Map The crash site, from the driver’s perspective. Last Thursday was a deadly day for elderly pedestrians in Chicago. As we reported yesterday, at 8:45 a.m. Thursday, a van driver fatally struck 80-year-old Jamie Ramirez at Ashland and Wellington in Lakeview. Around noon that day, delivery driver James Rudzinski, 61, struck and killed […]

Police are searching for the motorist who fatally struck a 48-year-old man in the West Englewood neighborhood, fled the scene, and then abandoned the car nearby. On Tuesday night around 9:15 p.m., the pedestrian was walking west on 64th Street across Ashland Avenue, when the southbound motorist struck him and continued driving, according to Officer […]

A female motorist who struck and killed a 37-year old man in Grant Park has not been cited with any violations, according to Officer Janel Sedevic from News Affairs. At around 12:40 p.m., Richard Hill “stepped into oncoming traffic” while walking eastbound across the 1100 block of Columbus Drive in Grant Park, near the Museum […]

View Larger Map The crash site from the driver’s perspective. A 33-year-old man died Wednesday morning, after a pickup truck driver struck him in East Garfield Park the previous night. At about 8 p.m. Tuesday, Cayode Fornize, of the 2500 block of East 81st in the South Chicago neighborhood, was crossing the street at Pulaski […]